Chapter 17

I didn’t bother to get out of my pajamas or robe for the next week. I still had my dissertation to complete, and I pretty much stayed at home, only leaving the confines of my small apartment to empty the trash.

It had been over seven days since I’d stormed out of Casper Argent’s aircraft and was driven to my apartment in silence by a uniformed chauffeur. I hadn’t been sleeping much, and it was plain to see that my anxiety had nothing to do with my dissertation, and entirely to do with the man I couldn’t get out of my mind.

My curls had turned frizzy from the lack of regular brushing. I didn’t bother with eating full meals any longer and just raided the pantry for anything available to simply heat in the microwave and eat out of its packaging in front of the television. Even Marla stayed away from me. She didn’t want Zoe to see me like this.

“You got a babysitter?” I asked her, when she came to see me again.

Marla worked as a nurse, usually on night shifts, and was the kind of girl who was always dressed like she was going for a fancy dinner.

She had just walked through the door, carrying two big paper bags full of groceries that she believed I needed. She had seen me eating junk for the past week and had done my shopping for me. I resented her a little for mothering me this way, but she was my best friend. She knew exactly what I wanted, and I knew that, too.

“Yes, I had to,” she said, whipping her curtain of shining, dark, straight hair over her shoulder as she started unpacking the groceries on my kitchen table.

I was still in my two-day-old pajamas with a mug of tea in my hands that had gone cold several hours ago.

“Are you trying to actively keep my godchild away from me?” I snarled at her, following her energetic movements with my eyes.

She rolled her perfectly eye-shadowed eyes at me and opened the refrigerator to arrange some groceries in there.

“Marla! Why are you keeping Zoe away from me? Do you think I’m incapable of looking after her now?” I asked, banging the mug of tea on the kitchen counter.

“You’re having a rough time, and once you’re past it, she can stay with you again. You need some space, and we are giving it to you. You know she misses you. But I think this is for the best,” Marla said, facing me with her hands on her hips.

“I’m not having a rough time; I just have a dissertation to submit. I’m studying!” I raised my voice at her when I knew she was right.

“Lily, we both know that isn’t true. You’ve been done with your dissertation for a while now. You just need to finish typing it. You’re still hung up on that guy.” Marla started unpacking the fruits to arrange in my fruit bowl.

I stared at her blankly for a few seconds. “I should have never told you about him. Now you’ll be throwing him at me every chance you get,” I snapped, and she shook her head and twisted her mouth at me.

“Oh yeah? Then why haven’t you left the house in a week? Why do you keep listening to sad love songs? You’ve barely showered, and you haven’t done your laundry, and you keep snapping at all of us. You are love sick, girl, and you need to just man up and deal with it.” Marla was serious now. She crossed her arms over her chest, and I knew what that meant. She wasn’t going to back down now.

“Love sick? Are you crazy? I barely know the man,” I said with a high-pitched laugh.

“It doesn’t take that long to fall for someone, especially someone who looks like that,” she said in a softer voice. I was breathing in ferociously, and my nostrils were flared.

“Look, Lily,” she continued and walked closer to me, placing her hands on my shoulders affectionately. “You’ve always been there for me. Through my divorce, all of Zoe’s life, you’re my best friend, and you’ve taken care of me. Now you need help, so let me take care of you, sweetheart,” she said.

I knew my lips were quivering, and I was close to bursting into tears. She pursed her lips and was nodding her head like an affectionate old grandmother, and I sighed.

“Thanks, Marla. I’m sorry for being rude. I’m just a little lost. I feel used and angry, but I miss him at the same time.” The words came painfully. I was admitting to my feelings for the first time out loud. I had tried to hold onto my rage against Casper for so long that I’d forgotten to admit how I really felt about him. I had painted a picture of being used for sex and then being thrown away. She thought I was only licking my wounds when, in reality, I felt a little heartbroken.

“I know, honey. Love is a strange thing,” Marla whispered and stroked the sides of my arms.

“Stop using that word. The “L” word. That’s not what this is,” I said, and she laughed a little.

“And stop being a teenager, Lily. An important part of being an adult is to admit your feelings honestly,” she said, and I rolled my eyes.

Then a thought suddenly hit me.

“Marla, you just said that it’s doesn’t take long to fall for someone who looks like that. I never showed you a picture of Casper. In fact, I don’t even have a picture of him. How do you know what he looks like?” I asked, wriggling out of her grasp with my brows furrowed. All of this was making me very suspicious.

Marla shrugged her shoulders and went back to unpacking the groceries. “I saw him on TV, and you’d told me his name, so I put two and two together.”

“You saw him on TV? Casper Argent? What was he doing on TV?” I was excited again.

“He was giving an interview on some news channel. I think I saw it today, in fact,” she told me.

My heart was racing again. An opportunity to see his face again! I ran out of the kitchen into the living room, and I could hear Marla’s heels clicking against the floor as she followed me.

“Lily, I don’t think that’s a good idea. Seeing him again.”

I was rummaging through the piles of pizza boxes and bundle of clothes to look for the remote for the TV.

“Lily! If you’re trying to get over him, you need to cut him off.” Marla was being more assertive now, but I was on a mission to see Casper’s face again.

I switched the TV on and started flicking through all the channels.

“Lily!” Marla yelled from behind me.

“I’ll be fine. I just want to see him again. I just want to know what he was saying,” I said to her absent-mindedly. And I finally found the news channel where they were replaying the interview that Marla had seen earlier that day.

My body instinctively collapsed into the couch. I was still clutching the remote in my hand as my eyes focused on the screen.

Casper Argent.

As crisp and handsome as ever. He was sitting on a chair in a lush garden with the backdrop of a beautiful luxurious mansion. I assumed that the interview was taking place in his house. He was in a sparkling white shirt, and this time, his sleeves were rolled up to his elbows, so I could see the veiny muscles of his forearms every time he moved his hands.

His shoulders were wide, rippling under the confines of his shirt as he sat. Lithe and muscular, like a beautiful Greek god. Like a statue carved out of marble in a museum somewhere.

I was drinking in all those angles, those features, the shape of his pointy nose… everything I had missed for so many days. His sandy blond hair was styled in its usual sophisticated fashion. Casually parted to one side, forming a tuft at the top of his head. His eyes were gray and relaxed. Every time he smiled, he made me instinctually smile, too. I was like a love-sick puppy who couldn’t stop staring at the screen. I hadn’t heard a single word that had been said yet.

“He is gorgeous. I will give you that.” Marla’s voice interrupted my thoughts, and I snapped out of my admiration of Casper and finally heard what he was saying.

“Yes, it was a rather sudden move, but I decided to take all things into consideration,” he was saying.

My ears pricked up, and the interviewer was nodding his head.

“But hadn’t your company already invested a sizable amount of money in securing that land for the wind farms?” the man asked.

Casper nodded his head, and ran a hand through his hair. Not one lock of hair was moved out of place.

My brows crossed immediately. This interview was about the wind farms?

“Indeed. But I was recently made aware of how the farms would affect the natural habitat of an endangered species of birds,” he said, and for a second I swear he was looking right at me.

My heart stopped, and the remote fell out of my hands.

“Did this have anything to do with the protests and demonstrations staged by environmentalists a few days ago?” the interviewer asked.

Casper gave a small laugh. “I suppose it did. Some people made very strong arguments, and I just want to make it clear that we are listening. Our company is listening. We are trying to find a sustainable source of energy. That is the whole purpose of constructing wind farms, but we are also aware of their effects on the rest of our environment. We are all in this together.”

Marla was standing behind me, smiling at the screen. “God, this man is good. I’m buying whatever he’s selling.”

“Marla, he’s moving the wind farms!” I screamed, unable to control my excitement any longer. She looked surprised and a little confused. She didn’t really know what I was talking about.

“Okay?” she said, following me around the room as I jumped and did fist pumps out of excitement.

“Does this have something to do with you?” she asked, and I rushed over to her and gave her a tight hug.

“That is what we were protesting. That is how I met him!” I explained to her, my smile stretching wide.

“Wait, so he did this for you? You’re the one who changed his mind?” she asked, as I shook her shoulders.

“I don’t know. But I don’t care. He’s moving the wind farms. Our protests worked. The birds will be safe, Marla,” I screamed.

“Lily. He’s done this for you. He’s a billionaire businessman. He wasn’t simply swayed by a bunch of hippie protesters. He changed his mind because he wants you back. Because this is his grand romantic gesture!” Marla was also screaming by now while I was laughing. I didn’t want to believe what she was saying. In fact, it sounded ridiculous to me. But a tiny part of me wondered if Casper Argent had really done this for me.